Living worthy of the cause for Christ

Many people just do not understand the cause of Christ and the reason that we must live worthy of it. It is more than just be a Christian; it is how we live and why we do what we do.

The biggest challenge to many is not dying for the Lord but living for Him. What is the cause in which we give our lives to encounter the measure of the Kingdom?

As we content for more of His presence and His power in our lives, the mandate of His cause should and will be more and more real in our lives. There is a purpose for intimacy. It is not for you but through you.

As I read the Book of Acts, I am confronted on every page the reality that they lived for something bigger than themselves: the cause of Christ.

In Philippians 1:12-13 we read about Paul’s commitment to it.

Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known…

Living worthy of God’s purpose

The cause of Christ is about God’s purpose in the world we live in.

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.” (A.W. Tozer)

Before evangelism and before service to others remains the primary purpose of the believer: to be a worshipper. There is nothing more supreme to our calling that to be laid down lovers of Jesus.

One of the most powerful examples of this comes from Luke 2:36-38 in the story of Anna from Asher,

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher….She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying….she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

She had committed herself to being about the cause of God and spend her life praying for, believing for and expecting God to send the Godchild for the redemption of her people.

It was daily that she would be found in the temple praying for God’s purpose. It was believed that she did this for over 60 years every single day. She never lost hope that there was a cause bigger than herself and what she could see happening.

Just as Anna did, many people are committing their lives to watch and wait for the inbreakings of the purposes of God in our lifetime. Every generation must contend for their own revival. It is happening as you read this around the world.

At a rate unseen of in the history of Christianity, people are setting aside themselves to be clothed with power and presence as they wait and watch for the cause of Christ in their generation.

Living worthy of God’s plan

There is a plan that is happening before us that is bigger than ourselves. It is about the great end time harvest in the generation in which the Lord takes the saints home.

While it has been called the “Billion soul harvest.” and many have coined the term Stadium Christianity for the plan of the Father; what is it called will not as important as what it does in the land. God really is going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation.

The times of reaping where we did not sow is before us. Great harvest is happening and will continue in the coming years. There is growth in China, Africa and South America that was unthinkable just a decade or two ago.

There will be increases in revivals breaking out in churches around the world and especially in America in the coming years. We must be committed to the cause of Christ in this regard.

“How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves.” -C.T. Studd

Worthy of God’s Mission

A lot of people that the mission of God is just to have big churches and lots of services. This is not true. The first century believers had neither.

That world outside there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it’s waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. (Leonard Ravenhill)

The great advances in the book of Acts was not in church meetings but in the alleys, homes, and marketplaces of society. Religious meetings have always created limitation on the move of the Holy Spirit.

Many of the great revivals started in classrooms, street corners and in the case of the Azusa Street revival, on someone’s porch. Centrality of religious meetings has rarely been the fire starters for nation shaking revival.

Commitment for the mission of God will empower us to be used to give a prophetic message to someone that burns with them just like it did for the two men on the road to Emmaus. They will also cry, “Did not our hearts burn within us?” (See Luke 24:13-35)

Out of these encounters will come large revival movements but it will be different. The meetings will be the overflow of the prophetic encounter; not the encounter being the overflown of the meeting. God has a far more biblical concept of church that we currently do.

Being worthy of God’s mission is more important the being faithful to a mission program we see in many of our local congregations.